Drug Czar linked to deception

Get this one right. There are millions of people who use and have used marijuana, so there’s bound to be some strong correlations out there. Correlations are interesting, and may be a reason to do further study, but generally, they are not, of themselves, a reason to act.

For example, marijuana use has been linked to Nobel Prizes, the U.S. Presidency, and Olympic Gold Medals. That doesn’t mean that marijuana use is going to cause you to get any of those things.

But yesterday, all over twitter and the media, the drug czar and his assistants havee been screaming at the top of their lungs about the link between drugs and crime.

In the manner typical of the ONDCP, they talk about it in such a way as to strongly imply causation, pushing the media to act as their patsies (and there are still a few who are happy to do so).

WASHINGTON — Marijuana is the drug most often linked to crime in the United States, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday, dismissing calls for legalization as a “bumper-sticker approach” that should be avoided.

Gil Kerlikowske, the White House director of national drug-control policy, said a study by his office showed a strong link between drug use and crime. Eighty percent of the adult males arrested for crimes in Sacramento, Calif., last year tested positive for at least one illegal drug. Marijuana was the most commonly detected drug, found in 54 percent of those arrested.

We’re going to see versions of this story everywhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw most of them written up the way McClatchy’s was, which is to say, without any indication that reporter Rob Hotakainen actually read the 2012 Annual Report on the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program II (or ADAM II in ONDCP shorthand), which is 122 pages long–far too long for Hotakainen to have examined it before firing off a dispatch about Kerlikowske’s speech. And yet, reading the report is the only way to tell whether Kerlikowske is spinning the results. (He is.)

It was interesting seeing communications director Raphael LeMaitre on Twitter promoting the drug/crime link, but he wasn’t getting away with it there.

Still, you can bet that we’re going to continue to get this kind of activity from the Drug Czar. Anything (including blatantly dishonest implying) to get the public worried about legalization. “Look — drugs and crime!”

50 comments to Drug Czar linked to deception

They do not give the percentage of those arrests that were from marijuana possession,,I would bet that the largest percentage of arrests made in the US are marijuana/drug related. If that is the case then naturally you end up getting a higher percentage of marijuana users.

In addition to asking arrestees how often they used illegal drugs in the last year, interviewers also asked them how often they consumed five or more alcoholic drinks in a sitting. The drug use statistics are included in the report, but the alcohol data is not.

Well, of course not. Why would the Office of National Drug Control Policy be interested in the alcohol-related data? How would that even be relevant, right? And besides, I’m suuure there were no interesting correlations there. (But I guess we’ll be able to confirm that once Mike Riggs gets a response to his FOIA request and publishes it.)

I’d like to see just how much fast food the arrestees eat. The people of West Baltimore that I have contact with appear to have a diet consisting almost exclusively of McDonald’s, morning noon and night. Sometimes it’s Domino’s pizza for a special occasion. Of course it’s baloney sandwiches, macaroni & cheese and powdered eggs when they’re in jail.

I noticed that I stopped getting hassled by the cops when I quit eating fast food. I’m clueless why that would make a difference but I’m certain there’s a very strong correlation.

And in the case of the Drug Czar, Pete, there’s more than a correlative “link” to deception, as you yourself have shown. There is, in fact, a de jure *cause* of ONDCP misinformation–viz., that the facts are against the office’s charter, and therefore must be opposed.

I was pleased to see that most outlets that ran this also included the following quote from Steve Fox:

“We could release a study tomorrow showing that 98 percent of arrestees in the United States drank water in the 48 hours before they engaged in criminal behavior. Does that mean that water causes crime? Fortunately, the American people are smarter than the drug czar thinks they are.”

Not too long ago, we would have had to write an LTE to rebut this BS. To have it appear in the same piece is priceless.

The ADAM II report confirms an urgent need to support policy reform outlined in the Obama Administration’s new drug policy strategy […]

I see… so Droop-Dog, let me get this straight, you’ve just released a report that somehow just happens to support an earlier report of yours which basically was a report supporting the previous report… “if we do the wrong thing some more it will have to eventually work” isn’t really good bizness sense. In fact isn’t it kind of Firestone Study-ish there bunky?

Gil… dude… aren’t you feeling just a tad embarrassed? I mean Ford Motor Co. only lost $400 million on the Edsel. You guys have blown over $1 trillion and drugs are in every city and burg in the country. Ford only took 3 years to figure it out, what’s the gummint’s problem?

Haven’t you heard that the foreign countries who are actually “tough on drugs” have completely rid their country of people getting high on anything other than drinking alcohol? Take Indonesia for example:

Prison cum hostel?
/snip/
Money, and not the toughness or criminal bravado of the past, now organises the distribution of power and pleasure at Jakarta’s Cipinang prison. Power at Cipinang is loosely defined as the ability to manipulate the sale of goods and the distribution of favours through financial access to guards. It provides the prisoner with personal security and access to more money and a better position on the cell block. Therefore, a prisoner will circulate valuable commodities such as drugs to increase his wealth and his ability to hire and control addicts, guards, external dealers and internal sellers.

Guards are not to blame for everything. Every prison block has a long list of goods purchased through hierarchically appointed figures called block heads. Block heads are respected by guards and prisoners alike. They organise cell blocks’ relationships with guards and the warden, and oversee the division of spoils or labour details. A smart block head also has enough money and credit to control goods on his prison block.

Crack heroin, methamphetamines, cigarettes and cooking supplies make every prison block into a mini-market for the commerce of both illicit and tolerated goods

Once delivered, drugs follow a circuitous path to their clientele. Within the block structure, for instance, a dealer will finance the core stash of drugs (heroin, putow, crystal meth, ganja) and then distribute those drugs to his kaki-kaki or ‘feet’. Feet will then inflate the price of the product to sell to their clientele. The block head is given a share of the profit, while the dealer maintains loyalty among his ‘feet’ by distributing protection, food and access to discounted drugs or the chance to profit from sales to poorer clients.

Internally, goods circulate among blocks, cells and prisoners. Some prisoners set up their own warungs or stalls. As in a traditional market, block-specific sellers keep abreast of market competitiveness between blocks and adjust their prices or credit services accordingly. Otherwise, if someone is selling goods on Blok A and the prices in Blok B turn out to be cheaper or can be purchased on credit, Blok A will lose its market. Drugs follow a similar, although more secretive, marketing scheme. Drugs are illegal and therefore price variations are easier to control through collusion among dealers. Price variations create rivalries and rivalries produce loose lips.
/snip/

JAKARTA — The use of the drug crystal methamphetamine has been steadily on the rise in Southeast Asia, in recent years. This week, a joint report by the National Narcotics Agency and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime shows that crystal meth is the now the greatest illicit threat facing Indonesia.

Known in Indonesia as “shabu shabu,” crystal methamphetamine usage has expanded exponentially.

In 2011, Indonesians consumed an estimated 12.5 metric tons of the potent and highly addictive narcotic. According to the U.N. report, crystal meth seizures rose 79 percent the same year.
/snip/

Was that loss in constant 2013 dollars? Because if it was $400 million in 1958-1960 dollars you’re talking about $2,502,407,038.78 in constant 2013 dollars. linky

Of course the total number of dollars borrowed and squandered on the idiocy of the war on (some) drugs is worth a lot more than the nominal number of borrowed and squandered dollars. If we’re going to start counting in 1970 and the government squandered $1 billion in 1970 that would be $4,784,164,664.27 expressed in constant 2013 dollars.

If you just happen to own an Edsel today they’re worth into 6 figures depending on the vehicle’s condition.

On top of that the Ways and Means Committee has already reported that the ONDCP and supporting agencies have failed to establish any way to change from incarceration too treatment,,meaning Kev-Kev has failed to convince investors to build the necessary concentration camps necessary to round up marijuana users and put the ones through rehab that can afford it and imprison the poor that can’t.
So for all his talk of change it’s just more hot air coming out of DC.

So long as pot is illegal, there is lots of money to be made in treatment and incarceration. If investors and businesspeople are not building treatment facilities and jails, it is because they foresee that these types of businesses will not be money makers. These rich guys are very clever, and are not going to be sold a bill of goods by a government shill. The fact that they are not joining in means that they foresee a different outcome, one which precludes treatment except for extreme cases and reduces the need for prisons, thus rendering the treatment industry redundant and making the prison-for-profit into prison-for-loss. They can read the writing on the wall, why can’t the pols and bureaucrats?

Can we at least assume that they excluded individuals who were arrested solely for drug-related offenses? Otherwise, it becomes a bit tautological, no? “We can’t legalize illicit drugs because their use is linked to crime. How do we know? Well, just look at how many people we arrested for using illicit drugs.”

We must also consider that the primary city used by the prohibasites is Sacramento and since 1/1/2011 California has been a decrim State. Since the vast majority of drugs law violations have traditionally been for petty possession of cannabis we can’t even speculate that those are included in Sacramento and Denver.

But then they also included New York City which suffered the ignominy of perpetrating 40,661 arrests for petty possession of cannabis in 2012. That’s at least 5% of the total arrests for the entire friggin’ Country. But why would the inclusion of New York City be surprising since the prohibasites got to pick which cities were included?

Confronted by the inevitability of life in a cutthroat capitalist society, the capitalist uses patsies to placate those calling for solutions to a plutocratic society’s lack of equity and justice. With a Malthusian contempt for the poor, the final solution becomes elimination. For the petty tyrants, the end justifies the means.

Eliminationism works best against soft targets. The caged can’t defend themselves. The poor are made vulnerable by design. The ignorant, the curious, those who strive for joy and freedom from their tormentors, risk entrapment by a persecuting society. The oppression is real. Without strong countermeasures, all others are vulnerable, fear spreads, and freedom throughout the world is threatened.

They are deliberately blind to the true link between drugs and crime: handing over the distribution and profits of the drug trade to criminals. This massively increases the price of drugs and, for problematic consumers, about 10% of the total, this inevitably means an increase in property crime to support a habit. Meanwhile the other 90% are forced to seek out “criminals” (by definition)in order to buy drugs, and become “criminals” themselves in doing so. Prohibition itself is the cause of increased crime Kerli.

Marijuana is the drug most often linked to crime in the United States, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday, dismissing calls for legalization as a “bumper-sticker approach” that should be avoided.

Well, Its obviously not a great way to run Presidential Elections either – or so it seems…
President Obama has called for *every other* socially liberal political reform except Marijuana Legalization!

Which IMNSHO = is just fine except for the demonizing of guns & the so-called “Culture of Violence” – in our media and basically everything remotely entertaining =(Movies/Music/Games/Sports/Etc.)

Call me horrible, but suicide via gun shouldn’t count in “gun violence” statistics Do they count “Suicide by Cop” in the numbers Too? (Actually… they probably do when they can get away with it).

I can’t get cloves cigarettes anymore, & they’re jacking up the sin taxes on everything = Oh, I forgot the uber-liberals want to be the ‘Food Police’ too, placing Sumptuary Taxes (aka Sin Taxes) on almost all the things that were illegal in the ‘Demolition Man’ MegaCity of San Angeles… Cocteau Industries is -damn near- visible on the horizon. “Fluid Transfers” could be difficult to tax, but not impossible = with the proper tech.

So yeah, the Drug Warriors don’t want to lose their Jobs in this economy, and much like they didn’t want to look for other work after Prohibition ended = they’re going to pick another similar target, so they can go on ruining peoples lives in their Authoritarian/Adrenaline/Zealotry-junkie ways =just like they do today they’re not just *Parasites* they are addicted to the feeling of busting people & “winning one for the _good-guys_” and all the praise that follows.
Well, and all those “Forfeited Assets” – that help make ends meet, pay-off CI’s and cover all their overtime payrolls.

THEN AGAIN, Obama did make a big speech the other day & said that ‘This war, like all wars, must end’…

And NOBODY – not Barack “Choom Gang” Obama, or Gil “Droopy Dog” Kerlikowske, or Barry “Knock Yourself Out” McCaffrey, Nor anyone else involved Truly Believes that we/(they) “Ended the War on Drugs a couple years ago”… and has said that he (now) thinks of drugs as “more of a public health problem.”Heck IDK, maybe Kevin “Essay” actually believes the manure he’s shoveling?

But for some reason they have proceeded to continue the increases in their requests for spending every time an ONDCP re-authorization comes up. Doesn’t appear to be a mistake they know they’re still spending more on the crap that doesn’t work.

And, they’re openly, desperately looking for this ‘Third Way’ = a way out of being responsible… Which to me sounds a lot like a young couple trying to get un-preganant by fucking more often & making sure to leave the lights off!

Maybe if it’s less fun or sinful that could somehow undo the process and/or “make it all not true” – I seriously doubt Alan Rickman/(as Metatron) is going to stop by and help them out with that… and it’s also the wrong Kevin S.

I get that he didn’t think his comment during the campaign about not interfering with marijuana in states where the law allows it (and these comments were really for meant to address Medical Marijuana [some cases were more specific about this than others] in 2008 not for *Recreation* (Adult) Use = the “sinful” sort of usage -of the same plant- cause we all know that’s *Bad*.

Note for future reference anything sufficiently ‘Fun’ is likely ‘Evil’ & or illegal especially if it makes you content with what you have, that undermines greed capitalism & consumerism – See, we’re “supposed to” be unhappy with our station(s) in life!
Always striving for more money to buy more/better happiness, if you can grow a plant that delivers a dose of contented-ness” = That’s a slippery slope to Socialism and/or Communism & it undermines their world view.
The Churches hate it for similar reasons, in their book(s) you’re only suppose to be inebriated when you’re *filled with the Holy Spirit* – or whatever they’ve wanted a monopoly on natural/(supernatural) highs forever.

I have can’t see how a public health matter (outside of The Black Plague or IDK a ‘Zombie Virus’), Requires the incarceration of the person in question whose health is somehow threatened by marijuana use.
I’d posit that the non-consensual sodomy in prisons would be a greater threat, and any rehab programs where the people aren’t there of their own accord = aka “Drug Court” => “Rehab or Jail you pick” a non-choice => involuntary rehab by court order is likely to fail spectacularly!
If you’ve ever been in (taken part) in an AA/NA/MA group, you’ll hear a ton of stories that are serious “How to do …” better than ever. You’ll pick up tips!

Example: I remember someone told a story about smoking *something other than plant-material) in a pipe with a lighter and the paranoia of the neighbors hearing a lighter – ‘sparked’ a clever idea. How to avoid the lighter’s flint making that distinctive sound – that could theoretically be heard by neighbors in the apartment next door… Get a couple of cheap candles & keep one lit/burning = and use that to light the gas from your lighter – like a year later I actually did that with my lighter & a one-hitter! Heck it even helps cover-up the smell a bit too. Bonus

“‘Fun’ is likely ‘Evil’ & or illegal especially if it
makes you content with what you have”

Well said. Evil is the authoritarian-right definition. Illegal the authoritarian-left one. In the end different sides of the same coin. The coin’s name: Agree with me or die! The solution to the hypocrisy of cannabis prohibition will not be partisan politricks. The solution: THINK FOR YOURSELF!

Oops, Typing while sleepy proofreading I left one last bit of a thought unfinished: It should have read

“I get that he didn’t think his comment during the campaign about not interfering with marijuana in states where the law allows it = would make as big of a wave & start a new ‘Green Rush’ like it did.
But he was ‘signalling’ (politically) in SO MANY speeches and town halls that he would hold to his 2004 statement about the drug war/”particularly our marijuana laws” being a failure that he would “eliminate programs that don’t work”, and other things about being/having pragmatic and rational approaches to problems.

Heck, He had Jay-Z performing at some campaign stops and he even gave a ‘Hat Tip’ of sorts to “99 problems” =after taking heavy criticism from Hillary he was up saying “sometimes you know, you gotta…” and he then *Brushed his shoulders off* = which was signalling cool to me it said “Yeah, Hillary is kind of a bitch – But, it’s all good = she’s not one of my 99 Problems”.

There were months of this sort of thing & he fooled my Demographic & group into thinking he’d get to this in his 2nd term at the latest – and maybe even the in his first term. Think about spending all that ONDCP money on rehab for people that actually want to be there = NOT because they were court ordered to be there!

That’s Possibly the most outrageous & overt lie Gil K. & Kevin S. Both tell – is the, “Increased requests (*artificial* demand) for people seeking rehab for marijuana addiction…” Its Total bullshit and anyone with a brain that knows it.
Except for a few like that bitch Alexandra Datig at “nipitinthebudusa.org” who come up with -real gems -like this junk below.

The Anti-Drug Crusaders, people who believe these nonsense assertions, and have nothing better to do but deprive the majority of the country a personal vice – cause they despise it, and want to protect us from being to happy with what we’ve got = Instead of being out fighting over piles of paper & strings of bytes.

i dont think obama is any kind of liberal, social or otherwise. he s a hack politician working for the man like the rest of them. does he really want to go down in history as the democrat who finally cut all ties with the left? america s answer to tony blair?

Even though the majority of the voters in this country believe cannabis should be legal, the fact is, we’re still putting people from the cannabis industry in jail for doing things that are perfectly legal in the alcohol industry, (from the consumer to the producer).

When marijuana use clearly creates less harm, (other than what is created by the enforcement of prohibition law), and a very minimal (if any) negative impact on people’s health, (and certainly far less than alcohol or cigarettes), how can we possibly justify continuing to imprison people for working in, supporting, and being supported by, an industry that is essentially the same as a legal one?

You appear to be pretty darn close to making an argument that our natural born right to equal protection of the law as protected by the 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are being violated.

I’d like to suggest that you do a little research into the phrase the “tyranny of the majority.” The move to more than 50% support for repeal points out the egregious nature of the enemies of essential liberty but I think that criminal laws shouldn’t have even 10% support for repeal.

I’ve got a good example of just how unpopular laws criminalizing cannabis are. On Election Day 2008 the people of Massachusetts voted to decriminalize the petty possession of cannabis by a margin of 62.8 to 33.5.

Another Initiative on the very same ballot sought to repeal the State’s income tax but failed by a margin of 29.5 to 66.7.

I’m most certainly of the opinion that if any law is hated by more than twice the people who hate the income tax that there should be no question that it’s time to repeal.

Oh another thing. If a vote is taken concerning a criminal law any ballot which the voter chooses to leave blank then it should count toward repeal, not be ignored. Seriously, if they don’t care that something is against the law or not then they de facto support the repeal of that law. In an up or down vote to repeal the law against premeditated murder were taken, how many “don’t care” votes would you think likely to be cast?

I would like this better if he didn’t blame capitalism, he is mistaking the crony corporatism we actually live under for true free market capitalism and blaming the latter for all the problems we have with drug prohibition. He’s a collectivist by his own admission and collectivism is the real race to the bottom.

I also dislike his attitude about the Constitution, he thinks it anachronistic, but the way it was written is truly timeless. Just because the gov violates it with nearly everything gov does, does not make it an anachronism, it just tells us that the people have been negligent in enforcing it upon the government as we were supposed to do.

[…] Drug Czar linked to deceptionDrug WarRantWASHINGTON — Marijuana is the drug most often linked to crime in the United States, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday, dismissing calls for legalization as a “bumper-sticker approach” that should be avoided. Gil Kerlikowske, the White House director of …and more » […]

“The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world that he did not exist.”

― Charles Baudelaire

The ASAM, FSPHP (state Physician Health Programs, Physicians Health Services, Inc, PHP) are the real threat. Fighting the powerless overt face of the enemy in this “drug war” be spitting into the wind. This is where the power lies, covert and quiet, and they have made tremendous gains. The DSM-V, the proposition to lower the legal alcohol limit to 0.05, and the power to control almost every physician in the US (you are either with us or against us), are the result of these groups–and DuPont is the Oz behind the curtain. It is time to identify the real enemy and shine a cold hard light in a direction that matters before it is too late. The next step is to roll this mother out to the general public.

I think we as voters need to demand that the Feds stop lying instead of using science. Correlation does not prove causation. THAT is science. Saying correlation proves anything is an outright misrepresentation.http://tinyurl.com/pngsvod

It’s been awhile, for anybody new here my name is CJ and I am a 11 year heroin user/lover/surveyor/purveyor etc. But not the rare kind who has millions in the bank thanks to inheritance or something, no. I’m in NYC and am sort of homeless, nursing about a bundle a day habit with no job and aside from food stamps, no kind of gov’t support. Infact if you frequent the lower east side or J F M 3 2 or 1 trains, it’s very likely you’ve seen me.

Yes every single day I wake up with an enormous amount of physical pain, that’s all right, i am complaining but it’s my bed, I made it, I like it, it’s sometimes extremely comfortable and definitely broken in so it’s cool, no worries nevertheless everyday I’ve gotta come up with about 45 dollars, MINIMUM, everyday, with no job no money, nothing. I mean, listen, lock away your phone and internet for a few days, make it so you have no access to your bank account and then go ahead and try to make 45 bucks magically appear every single day, you have to make that money appear while simultaneously feeling the onset of the most horrible sickness and pain imaginable.

I cannot sit here and think for one minute that weed is truthfully linked to the most crime. No way. Everyday me and my colleagues have to commit petty crime after petty crime to steal this or that from this person or that person or this store or that store or this or that whatever it is and then sell it to someone or someplace, every single day, so many of us. Yes, after that first, “get well” shot you can probably take it easy for an hour and fly a sign, but, for example, the other day a new face wandered into the crowd, new and naive to the “game” and he watched some of us (not me) with some money going to score or clearly nodding out, feeling good. This newbie assumed this was achieved strictly through sign flying.

So i and a friend teamed up with this newbie to go do some acquiring. Me and my friend were ready (meaning we had our money ready) he had assured us he was ready but low and behold he was 11 dollars short and so we had to wait for him. he told us he was going to get this money from a friend of his in mid town, so we just had to wait he’d go over there pick it up and come back and we’d be off.

Well after 2 hours of waiting we went and we looked and this dude had decided to give a go of flying a sign. Not surprisingly after 2 hours he had close to 1$. Turns out he was also NOT 11$ short but more like 40$ more like he didn’t have a cent to contribute.

It totally sucks that a 10 cent product costs 55$, $60, $65, $70, $75, $80, $85, $90 and $100 (when you’re really dealing with a greedy middle man or just bastard in general.) Whatsmore, unlike weed, you’ve gotta do this everyday or kick, but, just like they’re wrong about the whole “you take one toke and your an addict for life” BS, its also true that clean and sober IS NOT for everybody and nobody has the right to demand that of anybody, sorry. It’s my body and ill cry if i want to. the sucky part though is that everyday withdrawal physical pain, it really does suck. So you’ve really got to be committed and you really gotta get that cash everyday. Just the other day I saw a colleague flying a sign infront of Starbucks at Columbus Circle, he had been dope sick for about 15 hours and had only come up with around 18$. I happened to have a suboxone on me at the time and feeling horrible for him, I offered it to him for free, he was horribly offended and I totally understand. The sub may’ve relieved the horror of withdrawals but then you’d be screwed in a state of depression and panic attacks, unable to relieve yourself for over 24 hours, maybe even 32. In retrospect, I was wrong for offering it, shoot, I wouldn’t have wanted it either.

Well, I gotta figure out what I’m gonna steal today yet so I better go, but to me, there’s no way weed promulgates the most crime related to drugs. I just dont buy it. Prohibition of opiates though, absolutely. It’s kind of what they wanted/had in mind when they created it. It definitely sucks and as proven in foreign lands where the user has free access to heroin, when you take the money seeking/crime element away, people become healthy, productive, non criminal, non destructive additions to society.

After our ’88 House Fire, the only ones in our stuck-up community to offer help were people like You, CJ.
It’s all a Fairy Tale to Most. Requires Being Humbled, Broken, Smashed to the Ground, Left to the Elements, to Snap out of It.

“Still, you can bet that we’re going to continue to get this kind of activity from the Drug Czar.”

Bring it on! The fact is prohibitionists have not been able to sustain a single point in their favor.

The more they fight (not to mention the more prominently they fight), the quicker the fight ends in our favor for the salvation of the many people abused by sanctioned thuggery in the “land of the free”.

I’m all in favor of properly addressing any form of abuse, including drugs and especially law. The unbearably obvious abuse of law (e.g. the illegal judicial redefining of the Commerce Clause from “to regulate commerce” to ‘to regulate any activity having a substantial effect on commerce’) that pretends to oppose the abuse of drugs is horribly pathetic.

I pity you, ‘certain drug’ prohibitionists. You’re demonstrably evil and it’s only a matter of time before reality (in the name of sustaining its balance for stability) forces you to pay for your corruption.

Such prohibitionists have billions of taxpayer dollars annually, more muscle power (including vastly superior weaponry), and the mainstream media dominantly on their side, all to oppose our subculture. Yet, we (the people such prohibitionists call “dopes”) are still resolute and winning.

Truth always eventually prevails. I cannot urge strongly enough that good people join our side by embracing the whole truth and nothing but.

Properly dealing with drug abuse (like any form of abuse) is about properly dealing with stress problems. It’s not even close to being about recklessly equating use and abuse, correlating crime (mental illness, etc.) with illicit drug use, ridiculous statistics manipulation, undermining our rule-of-law to pretend to be doing something good, obviously defining liberty against our fundamental rights, and so on.

After reading that McClatchy article = I’d wager that the reason “Marijuana is drug most often linked to crime…” Is most likely due to one simple thing -something they completely failed to take into account- Marijuana is the most easily shared drug – aka “puff, puff, give”.

It doesn’t take a study to know that it’s also the drug with most abundant supply AND demand – at any given point/all other things being equal. I doubt they took that into consideration.

It’s also the most easily detected – due to the more lengthy presence of metabolite half-lives – and the most frequently detected Period!
You can thank things like their “Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program (ADAM II)” for adding to the mass proliferation of urinalysis, their Drug Polices make the whole thing become self-fulfilling at some point.

Particularly with all the Probation/Parole testing, and the “Drugs Don’t Work” program they thought was so great a few years back…
It was crazy of them to think that such a policy/program would do anything but inflate their statistics even further… And since then, they’ve kept wanting to test more & more people = like anyone who gets any sort of government assistance.
PLEASE, Show me some combination of policies that could possibly lead to even more statistics of “marijuana being linked to crime” = (Note: Beyond all the crap they’ve already put into place?) I DARE ya! (pun intended)

The thing that is competing for ‘most disturbing portion of the article’ is the following quote:

“He said drug addiction “is not a moral failing, but a brain disease that can be prevented, treated, and from which people can recover.”

This is “positively” ridiculous, He’s acting like people who choose to use drugs are all “Powerless Addicts” who can’t stop without treatment. Or acknowledge that some folks aren’t ‘addicts/drug abusers’ & therefor don’t NEED “Treatment” = Especially for people who are choosing to use marijuana, knowing full well that it’s “illegal”… and the possible punishments for using it.

They basically keep claiming that – all “rational actors” – would be scared away by the illegality and consequences/horrors of Prohibition. They TRY to use this to somehow “PROVE” that they’re people who’re “diseased” or “addicts”, that’s the most delusional part of their argument.

They won’t admit that non-addict users are possible = (that this *literally* isn’t a legitimate topic of debate in their book) = even when the President *kinda* said it was, Not all that long ago.

Granted, he then proceeded to refuse to take part in any sort of actual “legitimate debate” about the current illegality of marijuana = he gave the notion some ‘lip-service’ but only just barely.

Gil doesn’t seem to understand it’s like the old “How many psychologists/”shrinks” does it take to change a light-bulb?” joke… “Just one, but the light-bulb has to want to change first!”
There are plenty of ‘non-problem marijuana users’, OR specifically – those whose only ‘problem’ is that it’s illegal…
But, they refuse to acknowledge that this is even a possibility!

I just can’t see how we can have any real “Discussion”, “Conversation”, or “Debate” about the legality of marijuana – and any possible legalization of it -Vs.- keeping it illegal = if they refuse to even admit this possibility exists.
When one side (theirs) is so unwilling to even have an intellectually honest, genuine debate about it, its practically pointless to even bother talking with them at all.

I want to know if Obama’s brain disease has been cured? What was the name of this brain disease and where specifically in the brain is it located? How was it cured in President Obama’s case? OR: Do we have a diseased President holding the office?